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Otaybi was born in al-Sajir, Al-Qassim Province,[3] a settlement established by King Abdulaziz to house Ikhwan bedouin tribesmen who had fought for him. This settlement (known as a hijra) was populated by members of Otaybi's tribe, the 'Utaybah tribe, one of the most pre-eminent tribes of the Najd region.[4] Many of Otaybi's relatives participated in the Battle of Sabilla during the Ikhwan uprising against King Abdulaziz, including his father and grandfather, Sultan bin Bajad Al-Otaibi. Otaybi grew up aware of the battle and of how the Saudi monarchs had betrayed the original religious principles of the Saudi state.[5] He finished school without fluent writing ability, but he loved to read religious texts.[6]

Otaybi, upon moving to Medina, joined the local chapter of a Salafi group called Al-Jamaa Al-Salafiya Al-Muhtasiba (The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong). The group was headed by the Islamic University's president, Abd al-Aziz ibn Baz.[9] Ibn Baz used his religious stature to arrange fundraising for the group, and Otaybi earned money by buying, repairing, and re-selling automobiles from city auctions.[10]

Otaybi lived in a "makeshift compound" about a half hour's walk to the Prophet's Mosque, and his followers stayed in a nearby dirt-floored hostel called Bayt al-Ikhwan ("House of the Brothers"). Otaybi and his devotees obeyed an austere and simple lifestyle, searching the Quran and Hadith for scriptural evidence of what was permissible not only for their beliefs but in their day-to-day lives.[11] Otaybi was perturbed by the encroachment of Western beliefs and bid'ah (innovation) in Saudi society to the detriment of (what he believed to be) true Islam. He opposed the integration of women into the workforce, television, the immodest shorts worn by Soccer players during matches, and Saudi currency with an image of the King on it.[12][13]

By 1977, ibn Baz had departed to Riyadh and Otaybi became the leader of a faction of young recruits that developed their own—sometimes unorthodox—religious doctrines. When older members of the Jamaa traveled to Medina to confront Otaybi about these developments, the two factions split from each other. Otaybi attacked the elder sheikhs as government sellouts and called his new group al-Ikhwan.[14]

In the late 1970s, he moved to Riyadh, where he drew the attention of the Saudi security forces. He and approximately 100 of his followers were arrested in the summer of 1978 for demonstrating against the monarchy, but were released after ibn Baz questioned them and pronounced them harmless.[1]

Juhayman said that his justification was that the House of Saud had lost its legitimacy through corruption and imitation of the West, an echo of his father's charge in 1921 against King Abdulaziz,. Unlike earlier anti-monarchist dissidents in the kingdom, Juhayman attacked the Wahhabi ulama for failing to protest policies that (he believed) betrayed Islam, and accused them of accepting the rule of an infidel state and offering loyalty to corrupt rulers in "exchange for honours and riches." [17]

On November 20, 1979—the first day of the Islamic year 1400—the Grand Mosque in Makkah was seized by a well-organized group of 400 to 500 men under al-Otaybi's leadership.[18] The Grand Mosque Seizure lasted more than two weeks before SaudiSpecial Forces broke into the Mosque.[18] Pakistani Commandos helped. French Special Forces provided CB, a tear gas which prevents aggressiveness and slows down breathing.[18]

^Lacey, Robert (2009-10-15). Inside the Kingdom: Kings, Clerics, Modernists, Terrorists, and the Struggle for Saudi Arabia. Penguin Group US. p. 12. ISBN9781101140734. Everywhere Juhayman looked he could detect bidaa -- dangerous and regrettable innovations. The Salafi Group That Commands Right and Forbids Wrong was originally intended to focus on moral improvement, not on political grievances or reform. But religion is politics and vice versa in a society that chooses to regulate itself by the Koran. ... [other bidaa included] government making it easier for women to work .... immoral of the government to permit soccer matches, because of the very short shorts that the players wore ... use only coins, not banknotes, because of the pictures of the kings .... like television, a dreadful sin ...

^Commins, David (2009). The Wahhabi Mission and Saudi Arabia. I.B.Tauris. p. 166. As might be expected, a strict puritanical streak runs through Juhayman's writings on satanic innovations. Thus, the expressed outrage that an Islamic university would require a student to produce copies of his photograph in order to enroll even though, to his mind, Islam forbids reproducing the human image. Likewise, he objected to the appearance of the king's likeness on the country's currency. As for the availability of alcohol, the broadcast of shameful images on television and the inclusion of women in the workplace, Juyhayman considered them all instance of Al Saud's indifference to upholding Islamic principles.